


For Those That Pass Beyond

by ThePrimeOne



Series: Drabbles in the Dark [11]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canonical Character Death, Death, F/M, Not Canon Compliant, technically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:55:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23984167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePrimeOne/pseuds/ThePrimeOne
Summary: After the battle at Gronder Field, Ashe and Petra reflect on their native land's perceptions of death and beyond.
Relationships: Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert/Petra Macneary
Series: Drabbles in the Dark [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1591558
Comments: 3
Kudos: 10
Collections: Those Who Drabble in the Dark





	For Those That Pass Beyond

**Author's Note:**

> This got a bit heavy, so they may be ooc. Catch up fic for the Felannie Fever discord's drabbles in the dark. The prompt this time was "Heaven or Hell"... just without much hell, spoiler alert.

In spite of the star’s brilliant lights that lit the sky above the Kingdom army’s camp, it’s light couldn’t fend off the dreary atmosphere that had blanketed itself over the area. The Kingdom’s resistance army had advanced on Gronder with enough forces, at least they believed, to take on the Empire and the Alliance should the latter engage in battle with them. The unforeseen obstacle of the fog that loomed over the field made that belief falter.

When the fighting was said and done, all three sides retreated, licking their wounds from the battle- and in all cases, carrying bodies of the dead. 

Ashe wanted to retch at the sight of Gronder when the fog lifted. He stood on a hill that gave a large view of the battlefield, a view that struck a certain pang of anger within him he had not felt in years. They were soldiers, squires, knights, but ultimately they were people. People like Rodrigue that fought for their country, had families to return to, had whole lives ahead of them, dead on the ground so far away from their country.

They couldn’t bring them all home. Some stayed behind to bury them. Ashe wanted to give them the burial they deserved, but was ashamed to admit he couldn’t stand to be close to their slowly rotting bodies. Though his faith and devotion to the Church and its teachings had wavered in recent times, the least he was able to do was pray to the Goddess. That when their souls left this world, that they were able to embark on a safe journey to reunite with the her.

.

.

.

Petra saw Ashe's balled fists, an expression of anger taking over his face when they stood on a hill overlooking Gronder with some of the other Blue Lions before they were to leave. She had only seen that face once before, when he confronted the leader of the Western Church, filled with rage so explosive that recalling it even now put her visibly on edge. She wanted to comfort him, but found herself at a loss for words that would provide something she deemed adequate.

When she found him standing at the hill alone again, his hands clasped tightly together and head bowed, she silently joined him. She did not pray to Fodlan’s Goddess, but to Brigid’s spirits that had blessed and protected her. And so she did- she prayed to spirits to bless the souls of those who left this world and to give them a bountiful and happy second life beyond the one they left.

They both hoped that wherever those who passed ended up, that it would be a time of peace.

.

.

.

Later that night, long after rations had been served out amongst the army, long after the rest of Blue Lions went to their respective tents, and the healers painstakingly imbued each dead body they could take with them with white magic to prevent decomposition, he found himself alone at a dimming fire.

The longer he stared at it, the longer he grew conflicted. Fires like these reminded him of a happier life years ago with his parents and siblings. Now the memories of Remire and the hill that burned in the middle of Gronder stained that.

Bernadetta’s shrill screams still occasionally echoed in his ears. He didn’t know the girl very well in his academic days for good reasons, but she didn’t deserve it, knowing how scared and hesitant she was on that hill.

He was just glad that Raphael managed to miraculously save her. Better in the Alliance than in the Empire, he thought.

“Ashe?” a voice quietly speaks up and he jolts out of his engrossed state to see Petra standing across from him.

“Oh, Petra. You’re still awake?”

She nods silently. “Yes. I am finding sleep is hard to come by. Fortunately I am not alone in this. May I be seated with you?”

“O-oh, yeah, sure,” he shuffles over and Petra sits up against the log with him. They sit in silence for a moment before Ashe breaks it..

“I was seeing Bernadetta being taken away by Raphael,” she whispers. “I am quite relieved. She was… is my friend. She was not deserving to die in such a way.”

“She wasn’t,” Ashe agrees.

Another round of silence. 

“I can’t stop thinking about them. All those people that died in Gronder. On all sides,” Ashe says in short sentences. “I remember seeing all of them on that hill and I… I wonder what I did to deserve to live through that. And for all of them to die. Sometimes I think that should’ve been me,” Ashe laments, his back slouching some more.

No. Please don’t say that, you are strong. Petra thinks, trying to articulate her response before Ashe interrupts her. 

“Petra?”

“Yes, Ashe?”

“You told me the Goddess doesn’t reside in Brigid, yes? So who were you praying to, earlier today?” he questions curiously. 

It clicks right away he was attempting to change the subject, but she decided to humour him. Her eyes don't move off the fire. “You are correct. When I was praying with you, I was praying to the spirits. You see, when someone is passing away in Brigid, a prayer is being chanted at a ceremony. This is so we can be assisting them in the afterlife.”

“The afterlife, huh?” Ashe wonders curiously.

“Yes. In Brigid we are believing that in the afterlife, one’s soul goes to a place where the spirits originally once dwelled. Once there, they are erasing memories and making the soul pure. Then it is sent into the world again. I believe that the Church is calling this… reincarnation.” 

He nodded. That concept wasn’t new to him. Plenty of books he read had it in some form, but to hear that Brigid believed in something so different to their own was so fascinating to him.

“Yes. It’s a little different to the Church’s version of the afterlife, that’s for sure.”

“If I am recalling correctly, the souls go to another world to live in the Seiros religion, yes?”

“Yeah, that’s right. It has a lot of names like Heaven, Valhalla or the Blue Sea Star. It’s all the same, really. The souls of those who died go to be judged by Sothis. If she favours you, your soul will live forever in paradise in her realm. If she doesn’t favour you, your soul will be thrown out into the world again to start over.”

“I am understanding,” she hums. There’s a heavy silence until she turns her head to him. She sees Ashe curl up a little more.

“Ashe. I was wanting to say this before but I could not be bringing myself to do it.”

He looks at her curious, their eyes locked on each other. 

“I am knowing that those who died, whether they live again in this world, or living forever in paradise, will be finding happiness. Ashe, when you are fighting for peace, that will mean those who come back can truly live happy and free. It also means that the souls in paradise can be resting easy, that their efforts have meaning. I have hope you know you are stronger than you think Ashe, so please do not be thinking such hurtful things. It brings me great sadness when you do."

Ashe sniffles a little.

She reaches out to him to caress his face, wiping the tears away that trickles down his cheek. 

A sad laugh escapes him. "You're right. Felix would probably give me an earful for saying something like that too."

Ashe reaches up and presses his cold left hand on her warm right hand on his face, leaning into it.

“Thank you, Petra.”

**Author's Note:**

> I know the whole 'flames of eternity' AKA hell is mentioned a lot along with other stuff that's mentioned in Annette and Claude's support, but I got more sad thinking about all that so I went the canon divergent route and made it simple.
> 
> Comments and honest feedback are appreciated, as well as kudos and bookmarks. 
> 
> Have a good one :)


End file.
